Educating Women

It is finals week at Cedarville and as I watch students scurry through the cold from one frantic exam to the next, I am reminded how fortunate we all are to be at a place that we are able to learn and expand our minds, especially those of the female gender. Today I read the amazing statistic that one in four countries around the world do not provide formal education for their girl children (read more about this at Just Tryin'). It was not until late in life that I felt the pull toward higher education, well, at least it was not in my twenties! Education has opened so many doors for me. I am a different person today than I was before I went back to college. Yet I think many Christian females still feel that education is a man's world. Most of our Christian professors are male, most of our learning in higher education comes from males, and few aspire to degrees beyond the bachelor's degree. There is no doubt about the glass ceiling that exists for women in higher education. It permeates the board room, the deans and VP positions, and even the paychecks. The reality for women in higher education is that they will work twice as hard as a man to climb the ladder from the classroom to positions of power, especially in the Christian college environment. Just being a woman in the classroom in a Christian environment is an anomaly. So, as we take a break from education over the next weeks, I will also take a deep breath as I step down from the ledge of my gendered walk here and fortify myself for a new start in the new year. There will be little wiggle room on the ledge - there never has been for women. Still, I find it an exhilarating and provocative profession!